The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-22
WITNESSES FOR CHRIST.
THE WORLD TO BE BROUGHT TO
GOD THROUGH TESTIMONY.

SOuuUi6S5 w ilO w ~
nesses that the True Religion is Able
to Convert t he Soul-The Gospels
Power to Comfort Can be Testified
To.
THE HAMPToNs, Aug. 21.-"The Facts
Proved" is the subject of discourse by the
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, d. D., to-day.
His text is from the 18th verse of Acts iii:
1--WE are witnesses" Following is his
sermon in full:
In the days of George Stephenson, the
perfector of the locomotive engine, the
scientists proved conclusively that railway
train could never be driven by steam power
successfully and without peril; but the rush
ing express trains from Liverpool to Edin
burgh, and from e iinburgh to London,
have made all the nation witnesses of the
splendid achievement Machinists and navi-
gators proved conclusively that steamer
could never cross the Atlantic ocean; but
no sooner had they successfully proved the
impossibility of such an undertaking than
the work was done, and the passengers ON
the Cunard, and the Inman, and The Ma
tional, and the White Star lines are wit
nesses. There went up guffaw of wise
laughter at Prof. Morse's proposition to
make the lightning of heaven his errand
boy, and 1t was proved conclusively that the
thing could never be done; but now all the
news of the wide world, by Associated Press
put in your hands every morning and night,
has made all nations witnesses
So, in the time of Christ, it was proved
conclusvely that 1t was impossible for Him
to rise from the dead. 1t was shown logi-
cally that when a man was dead, he was
dead, and the heart, and the liver, and the
lungs having ceased to perform their offices,
the limbs would be rigid beyond all power
of friction or arousal. They showed it to
be an absolute absurdity that the dead
Christ should ever get up alive; but no
sooner had they proved this than the dead
Christ arose, and the disciples beheld Him,
heard His voice and talked with Him, and
they took the witness stand TO prove that to
be true which the wiseacres of the day had
proved to be impossible; the record of the
experiment and of the testimony is in the
text Him hath God raised from the dead,
whereof we are witnesses
Now, let me play the skeptic for a mo-
ment. "There is no God, says the skeptic,
for have never seen Him with my phys
ical eyesight. Your Bible is pack of con
tradictions. There never was a miracle.
Lazarus was not raised from the dead, and
the water was never turned into wine.
Your religion is an imposition on the Gre
dulity of the ages" There is an aged man
moving in that pew as though he would
like TO respond Here are hundreds of peo-
pie with faces little flushed at these an
nouncements, and all through this house
there is suppressed feeling which would
like TO speak out in behalf of the truth of
our glorious Christianity, as in the days of
the text, crying out: ''We are witnessesr y
The fact is, that if this world is ever
brought to God, it will not be through argI
ment, but through testimony You might
cover the whole earth with APOLOGIES for
Christianity and learned treatises in defence
of religiou-vou would not convert soul
Lectures on the harmony between science
and religion are beautiful mental discipline,
but have never saved soul, and never will
save a soul. Put man of the world and
man of the Church against each other, and
the man of the world will, in all probability,
get the triumph. There are Thousand
things in our religion that seem illogical to
the world and always will seem illogical
One weapon in this conflict is faith, not
logic; faith, not metaphysics faith, not pro-
fundity; faith. not scholastic exploration.
But then, in order to have faith, we must
have testimony, and If five hundred men, or
one thousand men, or five hundred thousand
men. or five million men, get up anu tell me
that they have felt the religion of Jesus
Christ Joy, a comfort, help, an inspira-
ton, | am bound, as q fair-minded man.
to accept their testimony. | want just
now to put before you three propositions
the truth of which | think this audience
will attest with overwhelming unanimity.
The first proposition is: We are wit
nesses that the religion of Christ is able to
convert q soul.
Tne Gospel may have had hard time to
conquer us-we may have fought it back
but we were vanquished You say conver-
sion is only an imaginary thing. We know
better. 1--WE are witnesses" There never
was so great change in our heart and life
on any other subject as on this. People
laughed at the missionaries in Madagascar
because they preached ten years without
one convert; but there are thirty three
thousand converts in Madagascar to-day
People laughed at DIR. Judson, the Baptist
missionary, because he kept on preaching in
Buimah five years without a single convert (;
but there are twenty thousand Baptists in
Burmah to-day. People laughed at DR..
Morrison, in China, for preaching there
seven years without a single conversion !;
but there are fifteen thousand Christians in
China today. People laughed at the mis-
sionaries for preaching at Tahiti for fifteen
years without a single conversion, and at
the missionaries for preaching in Bengal
seventeen years without single conversion; ;
yet in all those lands there are multitudes
of Christians to-day.
But why go so far to find evidences OF the
Gospels power TO save soull "We are
witnesses" We were so pre- I'd that no man
could have humbled us; we were so hard
that 10 earthly power could have melted rs;
angels of God were all around about US,
they could not overcome us; but one day,
perhaps at a Methodist anxious seat, or at
a Presbyterian catechetical lecture, or at
q burial, or on horseback, power seized us,
and made us get down, and made us trem-
bic, and made US kneel, and made US cry for
mercy, and we tried TO wrench ourselves
away from the grasp, but VIC could not It
fung us fiat, and when we arose we were
as much changed as Gourgis, the heather,
who went intoa prayer meeting with dag
ger and a gun, TO disturb the meeting and
destroy IL, but the next day was found cry
ing: "Oh! my great sins! OH my great
Savior" and for eleven years preached the
Gospel of Christ TO his fellow mountaineors,
the last words on his dying lips being:
Free grace" Oh, it was free grace!
There Is man who was for ten years a
hard drinker. The dreadful appetite had
sent down its roots around the palate aud
the tongue, and on down until they we're
interlinked with the v!tals of body, mind
and soul: but he has not taken any stiinu-
lants for two years. What did that Not
temperance societies. Not prohibition
laws. Not moral siiasion. Conversion did
it. why" said one upon whom the great
change had come, ''sir, feel just as though
were somebody else"
There is a sen captain who swore all the
way from New York 10 Havana and from